‘We’ll see them next year’: Eagles revel in their playoff spanking of the Giants
After the win that advanced them to the NFC championship game and one home victory away from a Super Bowl berth, it was time for Slay and Co. to bark back at their naysayers.
Darius Slay clasped his watch and adjusted two oversized chains as cameras swarmed his locker stall.
“I’m trying to blind some of y’all folks,” the Eagles cornerback said jokingly, ready to savor the moment that was about to come.
Slay, along with several Eagles, went into the team’s dominant 38-7 win over the New York Giants on Saturday keeping quiet about a perceived slight.
They believed the Giants wanted to see them a third time. They wanted to make their division rivals regret that wish.
After the win that advanced them to the NFC championship game and one home victory away from a Super Bowl berth, it was time for Slay and Co. to bark back at their naysayers.
“We kept hearing the noise outside the building,” Slay said. “We let them do all the [dang] talking. We came out here doing all the god [dang] whippin’.”
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After sleepwalking through the final month of the regular season, the Eagles were awakened and back in full force for the third matchup with the Giants. The animosity built over the Eagles’ Week 14 blowout and the listless win over New York’s reserves in Week 18 was apparent by Saturday night.
Whether it was something said postgame in the team’s most recent matchup, a snide comment to the media, or something implied, the Eagles held onto it even after the decisive win.
“You get what you ask for,” defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson said.
What were they asking for?
“You know what they were asking for,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Don’t try to tempt me to say something. You get what you ask for.”
Jalen Hurts offered much of the same.
“Sometimes you’ve got to be careful what you wish for,” the stoic quarterback said toward the end of his news conference.
The secondary delivered the intended message on Saturday, stifling Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. Cornerback James Bradberry, who was released by the Giants in the offseason for salary-cap savings, had an interception against his former team. Slay and Gardner-Johnson each had one pass breakup. Gardner-Johnson also snuffed out a few running plays, logging three tackles in his second game filling in at slot cornerback with Avonte Maddox sidelined.
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Jones finished 15-for-27 for 135 yards and an interception. He was sacked five times and fumbled once. The former first-round pick’s struggles stand in stark contrast to last weekend, when he had one of the best games of his career against the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round.
Similar to Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s typical scheme, the Vikings used a heavy dose of soft zone coverages and Jones capitalized by efficiently completing underneath routes.
Slay and Gardner-Johnson said the talent disparity between Minnesota’s group and theirs was the biggest difference between the two Jones performances.
“The scheme he went against, he went against them type of players,” Slay said. “There’s different types of players over there. There’s a lot of great players on the Vikings defense for sure, but we got a lot more. A lot more.”
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Gardner-Johnson had a similar sentiment, although it took reserve safety K’Von Wallace goading him on for him to say it.
“Best secondary in the league, man,” Gardner-Johnson said. “If you don’t believe it, you need to catch on. Come on, man, y’all hear him. Best secondary in the league, and we’re still playing.”
Talent aside, Gannon had an impressive showing Saturday night, making some key adjustments based off the film from the previous weekend. The Eagles were more aggressive taking away underneath routes and willing to use zone-match coverages that required the secondary to win its one-on-ones.
According to Next Gen Stats, Giants’ receivers Darius Slayton and Richie James averaged 5.4 and 6.7 yards of cushion each play, respectively. By comparison, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith each got over 8 yards of cushion per play.
Even coach Nick Sirianni talked up his much-maligned defensive coordinator, pointing out WIP-FM morning host Angelo Cataldi’s past criticism of the Eagles’ scheme under Gannon.
“Sometimes I have to hear some things about Jonathan Gannon, and I don’t know if it’s you guys,” Sirianni said. “Might be more other people. I won’t say names — Angelo — right? This guy is an unbelievable coordinator. The fact that he doesn’t get respect from our radio station blows my mind. It blows my mind.”
“He’s going to be a head football coach in the National Football League because of what he does. This guy is a stud. He’s a stud. I can’t wait to talk to Angelo on Monday.”
Gardner-Johnson’s swap from playing mostly as a deep safety back to the nickel position he played in New Orleans for the first four years of his career will be even more vital for the Eagles next weekend. They’ll either play the Dallas Cowboys, led by star slot receiver CeeDee Lamb, or the San Francisco 49ers, who rotate playmakers like Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, and Brandon Aiyuk into the slot.
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On Saturday night, Gardner-Johnson said the Eagles secondary showed its capability to outmatch opposing wideouts.
“Impose your will on people that you can impose your will on,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Y’all know what that means. If I know I’m better than you, I don’t talk about it, I go out there and show it. They asked for that, they got what they wanted. We’ll see them next year.”